The new World Trade Center tower was designed to be the tallest in the country, a symbolic 1776-foot marker of American resilience.

But the developer decided to nix the decorative mast that would have accounted for more than 400 feet, saying it would have been impossible to maintain. Instead, the nearly-completed building has a mostly-bare broadcast antenna that reaches the 1,776-foot goal—but may or may not be counted in the building’s official height.

A committee of architects met behind closed doors Friday to decide whether the design change will impact the official measure of the building’s height. Without the mast, the tower reaches 1,368 feet, the same height as the original World Trade Center towers but below Chicago’s 1,450-foot Willis Tower (not including its antenna), formerly known as the Sears Tower.

The architecture firm behind One World Trade Center says the needle will still have an array of equipment, including a communications platform for radio and televisions and an LED beacon with a blaze visible up to 50 miles away.

Daniel Safarik, an architect and spokesman for the nonprofit Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, told the Associated Press the 30-member Height Committee may decide to alter its measuring criteria—potentially impacting rankings around the world. The committee will announce its decision next week.

“Most of the time these decisions are not so controversial,” Safarik said.

BS! That ugly Canadian antenna should be covered with fiberglass, but now it won't and it's just going to be a tallest eye sore in NY/US. Good job idiot developers. Let's save some more money and cover the hole building in plastic wrap so it won't get dirty and you won't have to clean it, ever. Bunch of F'n tools.

So basically, if I were to put a 2000 foot antenna on the roof of my 2 story house, I would then have the tallest building in American. THE ANTENNA SHOULD NOT COUNT FOR ANYTHING IN THE HEIGHT OF A BUILDING!!!

Here stood that trunk, and there that chest; There lay the store I counted best; My pleasant things in ashes lye, and them behold no more shall I ... Thou hast an house on high erect, Fram'd by that mighty Architect, With glory richly furnished, Stands permanent tho' this bee fled.

Quote: "A committee of architects met behind closed doors Friday to decide whether the design change will impact the official measure of the building’s height."

What a lot of nonsense. A committee of self-appointed judges met behind closed doors to tell other people what is tallest?

If other organizations/departments/churches/unions tried to pull that stunt, people would scream bloody murder. It's time to put an end to this concept that it's important to measure the tallest/biggest/strongest/bluest ... whatever building. These are artificial, simplistic and juvenile ways to measure success. What about "most weather resistant"? Most number of toilets? Lowest maintenance staff?

People need to stop judging accomplishments as if they were sports events.

What's the difference and BIG DEAL? The Burj Khaliffe in Dubai which was built with US money fostered by our rampant OIL USAGE is over twice as tall as either of these two buildings in the US...The United States does have the tallest pile of dummies on the planet for giving all of their money to the Arabs!!!

One WTC and the Willis Tower are both monumental feats of architecture. Now only if they could do something about the feeble LED lighting of the Trump Tower's spire. It's like a pathetic nightlight which is barely visible only a few miles away.

C'mon, it's the American way. If you can't win, change the rules. But, let's face it, the spire was a lame idea anyway. If it had one, there'd still be an asterisk next to every mention of the building height. It'll say it's just 1,368 ft and with a hideous pile of scrap metal on top, making it 1,776. But that would be like raising the height of your house by adding a plastic Santa Clause onto the chimney.

@JanuszDuzinkiewicz Really? Its only a building and who cares. The way buildings are evaluated as to which is the tallest is stupid any way. Besides, the US has an economy larger then the next three national economies combined. I think that we must be doing something right, like the important things and not the meaningless things like how tall a building is.

@logonlon1 ... at the time of the attack on 9/11, because it was early morning and many workers hadn't made in into their offices yet. The buildings themselves were leased to the same capacity as the rest of NYC towers, 90-95%.

@flappinapes Not our money once we buy something with it. What burns me is so much of our work being spewed wastefully out the tail pipes of overweight pick-up trucks, rather than fixing the roads, for instance.

We continually prove to the rest of the world just how far we've fallen stupidly.

@megagood Yea I been there. I have been all over the world. NYC is a great city. Just saying it is not the greatest when you look at freedoms, politics, ect. I can think of many other cities I would choose to live in before NYC.

@JP0 Glad to see we have a 5th grade teacher here checking the spelling. If I cared about your opinion I would ask. Wiki by the way is not a valid place for you to check proper grammar. Try a .edu or .org site.

@MikeTeall @megagood Grammar police here. The correct abbreviation for et cetera is etc., not ect. Ect or ECT is an abbreviation for many things, see the Wikipedia article, but none of them mean "and so forth".